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Revision as of 13:15, 16 August 2020
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|title=Bryant and May: Strange Tide
|author=Christopher Fowler
|website= http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk
|video=CYVl4RQ9JeU
|amazonukcover=085750309X|aznuk=085750309X|aznus=<amazonuk>085750309X</amazonuk>
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Although humour is at the heart of the Bryant and May stories it isn't true comic writing. The essence is crime fiction, there is a crime and it has to be solved with the perpetrators brought to justice (or not). It's just that the mechanism for solving the crime is a bit left-field. As ever, even with Bryant not technically involved, there is much consulting of white witches and watermen and local tramps. There is a deal of esoteric meandering that may or may not have substance, mostly not in Bryant's view.
In earlier reviews , I've said that I love B&M because of the frivolity and absurdity. This one I found to be weaker on both counts, not least because it does have an 'end of an era' feel about it. There is a lurking sadness that not only because the characters themselves have been written into something of a corner, but because the author isn't quite up to sustaining the joke. The odd unexposed corners of London that are characters in their own right are becoming fewer, literally in the sense that they're being built over and therefore unavailable for use, and figuratively in that if they no longer exist, you can't even posit a fictional outcome. Fowler's work depends on it being true to London, the history of it - we have the old ways of the river at the heart of my of the tales, mudlarks and lightermen, and those of more dubious professions – and the changing of the guard with the bankers and corporatemen, and the modern snake-oil sellers not different from the old ones - taking their places. But there are only so many ways you can spin that before it becomes stale.
I enjoyed this outing as I have the others before it, but I feel a dwindling of anticipation. It's like an old friendship, where you won't necessarily decline an invitation to spend more time, but aren't sure that you'll be the one making the next phone call.
I smiled less often. It was more about working out the puzzle and less about enjoying the ride. It may be time to close down the merry-go-round and design a new attraction.
For earlier adventures of the PCU there is [[Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler|Bryant and May and the Invisible Code]] and [[Bryant and May: The Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler|Bryant and May: The Bleeding Heart]] or in a similarly silly vein we can recommend [[Harry Lipkin, Private Eye: The Oldest Detective in the World by Barry Fantoni]]. [[Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May Books in Chronological Order]]
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